We experienced the coldest few days we have had while living in Kentucky this January. The weather man told us it was a 'polar vortex' that moved very far south. It actually caused every state in the continental United States to have record breaking temps, school and business closings, etc. Our coldest days were Monday and Tuesday, January 6th & 7th.
Claude and I listened to the forecasts and prepared early. Friday the 3rd we did grocery shopping for Papa and for us. Saturday, after finishing the Meet Your Teacher event, I visited Papa again to be sure he was ready for whatever came. I did our laundry and made sure everything electronic was charged in the house. Sunday I took all the agendas and handouts for our Monday Primary presidency meeting to my counselors and secretary. There was the strong possibility for very bad roads Monday. After church Sunday I checked on Papa and then headed home to hunker down and see what that polar vortex would bring. By Sunday evening the schools were already announcing closings. I sent an eMail to my presidency and told we would meet via conference call.
Our temperature went down to -9 with a wind chill factor way, way below that. We were very blessed that we did not lose power or have a frozen pipe. We just curled up on our warm home and did things we needed or wanted to do at a leisure pace. It was actually a nice reprieve.
Papa did just fine. In fact, when Claude and I checked on him he was sitting in his chair in his living room with his shirt off and the fan on. Amazing. I assured him if he was that warm he should turn down his thermostat. He said it wasn't on. I assured him with the temperature in the single digits outside that, if his heat was not on, he would not be warm enough sit in an undershirt with a fan on. I turned his thermostat from 80 degrees to 75 degrees. Geez!!
The end result of this was not as pleasant for others. The Countryside Homemakers met at our home Wednesday, January 8th. One of them had no water in her kitchen. Another had not water at all. They were all happy to be in a warm home.
As we watched the news we saw the ceiling tiles in a church in Nicholasville that had just been remodeled and enlarged. One ceiling tile was completely gone and a literal waterfall was pouring into the building.
Then the Facebook messages and eMail messages started coming in. It seems our meetinghouse in Lexington had frozen pipes that burst in the back of the building. They had water in great abundance. The members were headed there with wet-dry vacuums to clean up and bringing big fans to help dry out. As of Sunday they could only use the front portion of that building. Our meetinghouse in Owingsville also experienced frozen pipes that burst and had water damage. This was repaired to a point where the building was usable by Sunday. Our meetinghouse in Georgetown had frozen water pipes but the water was turned off before they burst. A valve was broken and they still haven't been able to locate the piece needed to fix the valve. The water is completely turned off and the building is off limits until they can find the part to fix that valve.
This necessitated the Georgetown Ward meeting in the Frankfort Ward building Sunday afternoon from 1:00pm - 4:00pm. The decision to do that was made Friday night. Our Bishop and his counselor would go to Frankfort Saturday morning to determine classrooms for everyone. I sent them a map of our Georgetown building with the classrooms Primary uses highlighted in yellow. I talked with my dear friend Laura who is a counselor in the Frankfort Ward Primary. She and her hubby stopped by their building on the way back from Louisville and gave me the exact room numbers their Primary uses and their locations. This gave me a good mental picture from which to work. Saturday morning I received a call stating what rooms we would use. I assigned them according to the number of kids in our classes. Claude happened to have a map of the Frankfort building. I bolded the rooms we would use as a Primary, typed the times we would use the rooms and which class was in each room. Then we called each teacher and talked with them and sent them an eMail with the diagram of rooms and the times. Sunday we met in the Frankfort building. They were so gracious to us and made us feel very comfortable using their building. The work of calling and informing the teachers of all the details paid off greatly. We had Primary as usual after Sacrament Meeting and it went smoothly.
The part is still not in for the valve to be repaired. We'll have to watch through the week to see if that gets fixed. If not, we'll be heading to Frankfort again this Sunday.
In addition to their Christmas break, the school kids got another week off. Originally it was ice on the roads, then just too cold for kids to wait outside for buses without getting frostbite. Then the pipes were bursting in schools and repairs needed to be made. By the time all that was over the parents and, yes, even the kids were happy to get back to school.
It was an adventure and one we went through without damage to our home. Feeling very blessed.
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